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riiilrd from N'ol. XIII, ('ollcctions Kiiiisas Stjilc llisloricMl Society. 



REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF 
DRAGOON CREEK, WABAUNSEE COUNTY. 

Written by Stephen Jackson SrEAR, of Topeka, Kan., for the Kansas State Historical Society. 

I WAS born August 23, 1834, in the Quincy Point school district, town of 
Quincy, state of Massachusetts. In March, 1854, my father brought his 
family west, locating temporarily two and one-half miles west of Elgin, 111. 
Our family at this time consisted of Nathaniel S. Spear, my father, Lois 
(Thayer) Spear, my mother, and four children — three boys and a girl — 
Daniel, Warren F., Stephen J. and Delia A. 

On my mother's side I have a double line of Thayer ancestry, one of which 
traces back to two Mayflower ancestors— ^ohn Alden and Priscilla MuUins. 

In August, 1854, we moved to Bljchanan county, Iowa, where father, 
during the month of September, settled on a quarter section of government 
land. The settlers who had located in this county a few years earlier had 
bought up all the larger tracts of timbered land, but there was still plenty of 
prairie land that could be purchased from the government at one dollar and 
twenty-five cents an acre in specie, or with land warrants, such as were issued 
to soldiers of the War of 1812, and which were transferable. 

Other settlers soon came into our immediate neighborhood, including a 
Mr. Samuel Woods and family, and a Willard Blair with his own and his 
father's family. 

As was usual in all the newly settled farming sections of the Middle West, 
the "fever and ague" made its appearance, and in the fall many of the new 
settlers — including myself — were affected with it. 

It was not until we were living in Iowa that we learned, through the New- 
York Tribune, published by Horace Greeley, of the passage by Congress of 
the Kansas-Nebraska act opening to settlement the territory of Kansas. 
The long debates between the anti-slavery and proslavery members of Con- 
gress had finally resulted in passing the bill, with a provision that the settlers 
of the new territory should themselves decide whether it should be admitted 
as a "free" or "slave" state. This act was signed by President Pierce on 
May 30, 1854. The President appointed Andrew H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, 
as the first governor of Kansas, and selected Fort Leavenworth as the tem- 
porary capital. 

A tide of immigration followed the opening of the territory, and our 
neighbor Samuel Woods, having a horse team, started with his family for 
Kansas in the fall of 1855. In the spring of 1857 Mr. Willard Blair and 
family, and an unmarried brother, Thompson Blair, left our neighborhood 
for Kansas, driving through with a horse team. 

I was expecting to go with them, but was not ready when they started. 
They located in Shawnee county, Kansas, about four miles east of old Browns- 
ville, later called Auburn. 

I kept in correspondence with Thompson Blair, and in one of his letters 
he minutely described the trail from Leavenworth to the settlement where 
he and his brother Willard were located, and I determined to join them at my 
first opportunity. After earning a little more than one hundred dollars above 
expenses, I left my home in Iowa for Kansas, on the morning of September 1, 



2 Kansas State Historical Society. 

1857. The nearest railroad station was Dyersville, distant about thirty- 
five miles west from Dubuque, so father hitched up his team and took me 
and my trunk some ten miles from home to a point where we met the stage 
that ran to Dyersville. At Dyersville I bought a ticket for St. Louis, going 
by way of Dubuque (where I crossed the Mississippi river on a ferry boat) 
over the Illinois Central and connecting lines in southern Illinois to the ter- 
minus of the railroad, on the east side of the Mississippi river. Here I was 
told by the baggage agent that my trunk would be left at the Planters' 
House, St. Louis, and I was taken by stage to another hotel in that city. 
The stage crossed the river on a ferry boat, there being no bridge at that 
time. I reached the hotel about seven o'clock in the evening of September 2. 
After breakfast the next morning I went to the river to ascertain what the 
opportunities were for getting to Leavenworth. I found steamboat agents 
who told me their boats would be ready to start at four o'clock that after- 
noon, and would carry me and my trunk, and board me on the passage, for 
$12 in gold. I paid my fare and was given a berth with two men whom I had 
met on the train and who were also going to Leavenworth. Engaging an 
expressman to bring our trunks to the steamboat we went on board to wait 
for the start at four o'clock. However, not having a complement of pas- 
sengers and freight, the boat did not get started until four the following 
afternoon. 

On the trip up the Missouri river our boat ran into shallow water, and the 
channel in places was so obstructed by sand bars, and trees washed out 
during a period of high water, that navigation was slow as well as difficult. 
The monotony of the trip was varied by frequent stops at wood yards for 
fuel, Cottonwood usually, and at towns to discharge and take on board pas- 
sengers and freight. For the purpose of lightening the draft of the boat — 
enabling it to get over some troublesome sand bars — passengers often went 
ashore and under direction of a guide cut across the large bends in the river 
and there waited for the boat to come up with them, when they would again 
embark. The drinking water on this trip was taken directly from the river, 
and was so muddy that I became nearly sick from using it. 

The passengers on board were a mixed lot. Many were very respectable 
people, but others were gamblers who plied their profession until long past 
midnight. These left the boat at St. Charles, and it was generally under- 
stood that they had "cleaned up" a nice little pile on the trip. 

About noon of September 8 we reached the hamlet of Kansas City, Mo., 
at which point my two roommates left the boat. Resuming the journey we 
reached Leavenworth about 6 p. m. the same day. I stored my trunk at a 
warehouse, and feeling so miserable I could not eat, I hunted up a lodging 

house. 

At this time Leavenworth was an important outfitting point for travelers. 
A road running from there to the south and west joined the Santa Fe trail 
in what is now the southeast corner of Wabaunsee county, and was a feeder 
to that great highway. The old trail at this date was broad and lined with 
sunflowers, many attaining a large growth. 

On the morning of September 9, I could eat no breakfast, but with the 
written directions of the route to Mr. Blair's in my pocket for constant 
reference I started out to walk the distance to his claim. My way lay over 
the Delaware Indian reservation. After walking some seven or eight miles 



D. of Do 

iAW : 1918 



Early Settlement of Dragoon Creek. 3 

the stage en route to Lawrence overtook me, and I paid $3 in coin to ride 
the twenty-five miles to that phxce. 

From Lawrence westward there were but few settlers living near the trail, 
and many of them had to haul their drinking water in barrels from long dis- 
tances. I therefore found considerable difficulty in getting good drinking 
water, and to add to my discomfort the wind was blowing very hard from the 
direction in which I was walking. When I arrived at Mr. Blair's house, about 
sunset the 11th, I was too sick and tired to eat, and soon after my arrival I 
was taken down with the fever and ague. 

The Blair brothers, in common with so many of the early settlers, had no 
water supply at home, but were compelled to get it from a spring situated 
more than a mile from their house. As soon as I was able I went with Thomp- 
son Blair on one of his trips to this spring for water. The spring was in a 
ravine and could not be approached very closely by a wagon, and as there 
was nothing at hand to hitch the horses to, I held them while Blair filled the 
kegs and carried them to the wagon. While he was at the spring a number of 
Indians, mounted on ponies, rode up and stopped. They were singing loudly, 
though not musically, either to me or the team I was holding, and 1 had a 
difficult task to keep the animals quiet until the kegs were filled and brought 
to the wagon. These Indians were accompanied by their squaws, papooses 
and dogs, and they went into camp near the spring. At this period there 
were many Indians in the territory. 

A short time before I arrived at Mr. Blair's home, a Mr. Wysong, who 
had settled on Dragoon creek but was then returning to Ohio, stopped at the 
Blairs' and in conversation told Mr. Blair that there were good claims on 
Dragoon creek on which could be found coal for fuel. He mentioned Mr. 
Samuel Woods as one of the settlers on this creek. 

During my stay at Mr. Blair's my health improved, and on the 21st of 
September I started for Dragoon creek. After walking about four miles I 
passed through Brownsville, following the Leavenworth branch of the Santa 
Fe trail, which passed through this place and united with the old Santa Fe 
trail from Westport at a point where the town of Wilmington was later 
located. I followed the trail until it was crossed by the road from the Dragoon 
creek settlement to Council City (later called Burlingame). Into this road I 
turned, and following up Dragoon creek for about two and one-half miles I 
reached the home of Samuel Woods somewhere near sunset. 

No rain had fallen in this locality since the first of July, and the prairie 
grass in consequence had not made much of a growth after that date. As 
there had been no frost, the haying that fall was late. When I reached Mr. 
Woods' he did not have his hay stacked. He possessed but one pitchfork, 
and as his neighbors were also engaged in haying and using theirs, and he 
thought it was too far to go to Kansas City to buy another, he improvised 
one for me from a hickory sapling. Such hay as he had cut and cured we got 
stacked by the 22d of October. 

When Kansas territory was opened for settlement the settlers had the 
privilege of taking the land, after the survey had been made, under the pre- 
emption act. This act gave each head of a family or person over twenty-one 
years of age the right to settle on and improve a tract of land not greater 
than one hundred and sixty acres, which land was to be paid for at the rate of 
one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre on or before such time as the Presi- 



4 Kafisas State Historical Society. 

dent by proclamation should bring the land into market. The land was first 
surveyed into tracts six miles square — called townships — the survey begin- 
ning at a point where the sixth principal meridian crossed the fortieth par- 
allel, the northern boundary of Kansas. 

In 1855 the townships had not yet been surveyed into tracts of a section 
each, and that work was not completed until after the first settlers had al- 
ready located in the territory. 

Previous to the date of my reaching the Dragoon creek settlement — 
September 21, 1857 — there were twelve families living there. This number 
included J. Q. Cowee, whose claim was on Wakarusa creek but near enough 
for him to be called a neighbor. 

George M. Harvey, a son of Henry Harvey," was the first settler in the 
Dragoon creek neighborhood. He made his claim in June, 1854, ^ but a short 
time after the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. At that time he was a 
widower, with three children — two sons and a daughter. These children 
lived with friends in Arkansas after the death of their mother. About the 
first of September, 1857, Harvey married as his second wife Miss Abigail 
Hadley, who lived near Emporia. 

Samuel B. Harvey, George Harvey"s brother, made his claim in August, 
1854. I have a letter from him, written February 10, 1903, in which he de- 
scribes early events on Dragoon creek. 

As the timber and best farming land was near the creek the first settlers 
chose it. This land was surveyed into sections in the winter of 1855-'56. 
There were deep snows that winter, and severely cold weather, and George 
Harvey told me that the surveyors camped in the timber near the present 
Harveyville picnic ground. During this time they ran short of rations, owing 
to the inclement weather, and were forced to eat pumpkin, roasted in the 
ashes of their camp fires, to help out their bill of fare until the weather 
moderated sufficiently to enable supplies to be forwarded to them. After 
the survey was made, George Harvey's claim was in the southeast quarter 
of section twenty-eight, and Samuel B. Harvey's claim in the northwest 
quarter of section thirty-four, both in township 14 south, range 13 east. 

The following twelve families already located on Dragoon creek by the 
fall of 1857 made a total of sixty-three persons living there: 

.James L. Thompson and family, from Tennessee; five persons. Isaiah 

1. Henry Harvey, for whom Harveyville, Wabaunsee county, was named, was a missionary 
to the Shawnee Indians. He had been placed in charge of the Friends' mission at Wapaugh- 
konnetta, Ohio, in 1830, and after this band moved to Kansas, leaving their Ohio home about 
September 20, 1832, he visited them twice. In 1840 he and his wife were made superintendent 
of the Friends' mission among the Shawnees in what is now Johnson county, remaining there 
until 1842, when they returned to Ohio and he began his "History of the Shawnee Indians, 1681- 
1854," which was published in 1855. He returned to Kansas, making an early settlement on 
Dragoon creek, and was a delegate in 1855 to the free-state convention from his district, which 
embraced not only his own county, then called Richardson, but Shawnee, Davis, Wise and Breck- 
enridge counties; the last three now known by their modern names of Geary, Morris and Lyon 
counties. 

In 1858 Mr. Harvey was appointed chairman of supervisors for Mission creek district, Richard- 
son county, and when the name of the county was changed to Wabaunsee he was one of the first 
county commissioners, elected in March, 1859. 

His wife, Ann, sometimes called Anna, who had been an able assistant in his work with the 
Indians, died July 8, 1858. Mr. Harvey returned to his old home in Ohio in 1860, and died there 
sometime during the war. 

2.^ The story that the first house was built on Dragoon creek in 1844 and was a "Robbers' 
Roost" should have a brief denial here. Mr. Spear has placed with the Historical Society a manu- 
script account of how that "yarn" got its start through a story told in 1861 or 1862 by an old 
plainsman, Tom Fulton; and how, after many years it was brought to the surface by a hoax 
perpetrated on some boys, victims of the time-honored "coon hunt joke." 



Early Settlcincnt of Dragoon Creek. 5 

Harris and family, from Clarksville, Ohio; nine persons. James K. Johnson 
and family, from Ohio; four persons. Allen Hodgson and family, from Illi- 
nois; six persons. Jehu Hodgson and family, from Illinois; four persons. 
George M. Harvey and family, from Ohio; five persons. Henry Harvey 
and family, from Ohio; six persons (including his son Samuel B. Harvey 
and three grandchildren.) Samuel Woods and family, from Galesburg, 111., 
and Buchanan county, Iowa; six persons. John McCoy and family, from 
Kentucky and Omaha, Neb.; five persons. Andrew Johnson and family, 
from Philadelphia, Pa., and Peoria, 111.; four persons. George Brain and 
family, from England and Peoria, 111.; three persons. J. Q. Cow'ee and wife, 
from Courtland county, New York; two persons. Edward B. Murrell and 
Moses B. Crea, unmarried men from Ohio, members of Isaiah Harris's family, 
two persons. William Probasco, unmarried, from Illinois, was living in 
Allen Hodgson's family. William Madden, unmarried, from Ohio, was liv- 
ing in George M. Harvey's family. 

Moses B. Crea and William Madden had claims with cabins on them, 
having purchased their land from earlier settlers who had sold out and gone 
west. 

Mrs. James L. Thompson died August 6, 1857, and was buried on Mr. 
Thompson's claim. 

Charles R. Hodgson, son of Jehu and Mary A. Hodgson, was the first 
child born in the settlement, July 26, 1857. 

There was a financial panic in the eastern states during 1857 that was 
felt keenly by the settlers in this territory during the fall. Most of the 
newcomers had paid out nearly all their money at the Missouri river towns 
for provisions, stock, tools, clothing and other necessaries, and when their 
lands were brought into market they didn't have the specie to pay for them. 
However, there were kind-hearted men, brokers, at the land-office town of 
Lecompton, who would loan the settlers money to preempt land, charging 
them only from forty-eight to sixty per cent interest a year and taking a 
mortgage on the land for security. 

On September 23, 1857, the second day after my arrival on Dragoon 
creek, Mr. Woods showed me some unclaimed land, from which I selected 
the southwest quarter of section twenty-one. That fall and winter I made 
some improvements on my claim, including the building of a cabin. Upon 
my inquiry Mr. Woods had told me that he was not aware of the existence 
of coal in the settlement. 

The cabins of the first settlers were built of round logs, and the roofs were 
covered with rough shingles called "shakes," which were split from walnut 
logs. Some of the cabins had floors made of puncheons; these were rough 
l)oards split from logs. Later the cabins and houses of the settlers were 
made of hewed logs, and the shingles, after being split into suitable sizes, 
were shaved so that they could be laid close enough to keep out most of the 
snow in winter. 

In 1857 a small sawmill was located at Council City, and considerable 
timber cut by the Dragoon creek settlers was hauled there and sawed into 
lumber, thus providing for more comfortable homes. John McCoy had the 
distinction of erecting the first house built from native lumber, sawn shingles 
and siding being used in its construction. The early houses were built with 



6 Kansas State Historical Society. 

outside stone chimneys, and the cooking was done at the fireplaces, cook- 
stoves being a later luxury. 

When not working for myself that fall I worked for Mr. McCoy. There 
being no well on his place, all the water used on the farm had to be carried 
from George Harvey's spring, so he decided to start digging for water. The 
man who did the work for McCoy encountered stone very near the surface 
and had to blast nearly the entire eighty feet the well was sunk. No water 
being found when this depth was reached, the well was walled up and left. 
Later water came in and filled it to within forty feet of the top. 

There were plenty of evidences that the buffalo had roamed this section 
before the settlers had arrived. Patches of ground were found here and there, 
trodden so solid that no vegetation would grow, save the prickly pear, until 
the ground was fertilized. These spots were called "buffalo wallows." 

In October, 1857, Jehu and Allen Hodgson and Samuel Woods took a 
team of horses and two yoke of oxen and went about eighty miles to the 
southwest in search of buffaloes to procure meat for the winter's use. Buffalo 
meat and jerked venison were staples in every home. They were gone about 
three weeks, but came back well supplied. For several succeeding years 
parties of hunters left this community each fall to go out for buffaloes, but 
each tim.e they had to go farther to find them. 

On Thanksgiving day, 1857, Andrew Harris killed two wild turkeys at 
one shot while hunting in the timber along the creek. There were many 
prairie chickens and some deer, the Indians killing more of them than the 
whites. 

In 1857 the nearest post office to the Dragoon creek settlement was Coun- 
cil City, distant eight to twelve miles. We had a semimonthly service, the 
mail being carried over the Santa Fe trail from Westport, Mo., to Santa Fe, 
N. M., in two large coaches, each drawn by six spans of mules. In the spring 
of 1858 a post office was established at Wilmington, which was at the junc- 
tion of the Leavenworth road with the Santa Fe trail. O. H. Sheldon was 
the first postmaster. Simon Dow was appointed in 1859, and H. D. Shepard 
in 1860. Mr. Shepard kept a store in which the post office was located, 
and he continued as postmaster until 1867. He also represented Wabaunsee 
county in the legislature for several years.' Our nearest post office on the 
line of the trail to the westward was at Council Grove, about twenty-eight 
miles. 

In breaking the prairie sod most of the team work was done by oxen, 
from two to six yoke being used, according to the size of the plow. The oxen 
during the summertime were not fed at night, but were unyoked, a bell 
strapped around the neck of the lead ox, and then turned loose to graze 
until the next morning. It not infrequently happened that the oxen would 
stray— sometimes several miles from home. A riding pony was usually kept 
lariated near the house to be used in such times of emergency, and it was no 

3. Henry David Shepard was born in Portland, Conn., May 1, 1838, and died at Burlingame, 
Kan., April 20, 1904. He was one of the early settlers of Wilmington, Wabaunsee county, going 
there from Connecticut in 1858. His first wife, Miss Clara Miller, of Portland, Conn., died at 
Wilmington August 13, 1858. Mr. Shepard was a member of the legislatures of 1865 and 1866. 
He moved to Burlingame in 1868, having married, November 13, 1865, Miss Daphne Dutton, 
daughter of Abiel Dutton, of Burlingame. Mr. Shepard was a "town builder," and a man of 
much public spirit. He .served his town as mayor six different terms. In 1892 he established the 
Burlingame Bank and was its president until his death; he built the Shepard House, which was 
destroyed by fire in 1903; he also built the Shepard Opera House. In his later years he was a 
man of many and varied interests. 



Earhj Settlement of Dragoon Creek. 7 

uncommon thing to find the animals lying down in the tall grass or patches of 
brush, calmly chewing the cud of contentment, perfectly quiet, not moving 
enough to shake the hell about their necks. P^or general purposes oxen were 
indispensable to the pioneers; they were much easier kept than horses, and 
for doing errands, going to the post office or trading at the towns they were 
much in evidence. 

The earliest transportation over the Santa Fe trail was by pack mule. 
Later, as trade increased, mules and oxen were used, usually six spans of 
mules or six yoke of oxen hitched to the heavy freight wagons, later called 
prairie schooners. About fourteen wagons constituted the average wagon 
train, the whole being under the care of a "train boss." 

In 1825 the trail was surveyed by the government, and creeks and streams 
that crossed the trail were noted by the number of miles they were distant 
from Independence, Mo. The stream at Fry McGee's place was numbered 
"110 Creek"; the one at Charles Withington's was called "142 Creek." 
The troops and supplies for the United States army in the Mexican w^ar, 
1845- '48, were transported over this trail. 

In 1858 and 1859, during the period of the Pike's Peak gold excitement, 
large numbers of gold hunters passed over the trail for the new diggings. Some 
of these were driving good teams and wagons, some were on horseback, 
others had small push carts, and some even wheelbarrows, loaded with all 
their earthly possessions tied in a small roll. During one day in 1859 three 
hundred and twenty-five vehicles by actual count crossed at the ford on Elm 
creek, near the old mail station. At the height of the gold excitement it was 
no unusual thing for five hundred vehicles to cross at that ford in a single day. 
Often the wagons bore the inscription "Pike's Peak or Bust" painted on the 
wagon covers, and it is a matter of history that many of these pilgrims re- 
turned "busted'.' — some having never reached the gold fields. Others, how- 
ever, were successful, and became founders of Colorado towns. 

A few years since the Kansas Daughters of the American Revolution, 
assisted by the State Historical Society, marked the line of the trail across 
the state, setting one or more substantial granite markers in every county 
through which the trail passed. To accomplish this the legislature made an 
appropriation of $1000, while the school children of the state raised by penny 
contributions the balance needed to do the marking. One of the markers 
was placed in the town of Burlingame, near where the post office was located 
in 1857; one at Havana, about four and a half miles distant; one was set at 
the junction of the Leavenworth road and Santa Fe trail, at Wilmington; 
and another was placed near the old mail station at the ford on Elm creek, 
in Lyon county. 

The winter of 1857- '58 was very mild. But little snow fell, and the young 
stock lived on the prairie grass. In the spring of 1858 enough moisture fell 
to soak the ground, and the grass, sod corn and gardens had plenty of mois- 
ture. In August that year heavy rains fell, causing creeks in the vicinity of 
the Dragoon settlement to overflow their banks. An election to vote on the 
Lecompton constitution was held August 2, 1858. Should this election re- 
sult in the constitution receiving a majority of votes it meant that Kansas 
would be a slave state, consequently all the voters of the Dragoon district 
made ready to go to the polling place at Wilmington, some four miles south 
of the creek, to cast their votes against the proposition. When our party 



8 Kansas State Historical Society. 

arrived at Dragoon creek it was found bank full from the recent rains. There 
were no bridges across the stream in those days, so a temporary structure 
was managed by cutting a large elm tree that leaned out over the stream, 
reaching nearly half way across. Albert, the fourteen-year-old son of George 
Harvey, took an axe, and climbing on the fallen tree trimmed it so as to get 
as far out over the creek as possible. He then plunged in and swam to the 
other bank, carrying his axe with him; on that bank he cut another tree, 
which fell across the first one, thus affording a bridge over which George and 
Samuel Harvey, Samuel Woods and myself crossed. Before we reached 
Soldier creek, which was fordable only on horseback, we overtook Jehu 
Hodgson, who lived on the south side of the Dragoon. He was riding horse- 
back. After crossing Soldier creek he dismounted and led his horse back 
into the stream, making it swim to the opposite side, when it was caught 
and ridden back by one of our party. We repeated the performance until 
we were all across. At the election Wilmington precinct gave a solid vote 
against the proslavery constitution. The total vote in the territory for the 
constitution was 1788; against the constitution, 11,300; making a majority 
against of 9512. 

William Madden returned to Ohio the winter of 1857- '58. But in the 
spring he again joined the settlement, accompanied by his brothers Jehu 
and John and Aaron Harvey. Jehu Madden had been on Dragoon creek 
the previous year, having preempted a claim and sold it to Caleb J. Harvey, 
who at that time was a school teacher at the Quaker Shawnee Mission. 
Jehu and John Madden and Aaron Harvey were unmarried men and kept 
bachelor's hall in William Madden 's cabin. The Madden boys brought a 
young horse team with them. 

My father and mother, and two brothers — Daniel and Warren — came 
from Buchanan county, Iowa, bringing with them two yoke of oxen and 
three horses. They arrived April 15, 1858. By this time I had built on my 
claim a cabin fourteen by eighteen feet, with an upper fioor. 

In May, 1858, John Kester and family of about eight persons arrived 
from Ohio. Henry Easter and family of six persons came from Illinois. 
They brought three yoke of oxen. They were accompanied by Dr. Calkins, 
who, that summer, taught the first school in the settlement, using Henry 
Harvey's house for the school room. The doctor did not bring his own family 
until later. 

Matt Wysong, previously mentioned as stopping at the home of Willard 
Blair in 1857, came back to the settlement in 1858, l)ringing his family of 
three with him. He did not preempt land, however, and soon returned to 
Ohio. 

Samuel Armstrong, an unmarried man from Pennsylvania, came during 
the spring of 1858, and took a claim. 

The first public celebration of Independence Day in the settlement was 
on July 4, 1858. All the neighbors met in a grove on George M. Harvey's 
place and had an interesting and enjoyable time. 

William Probasco, a brother of Mrs. Allen Hodgson, was killed by light- 
ning on the afternoon of July 25, 1858, during a shower and electrical storm: 
he was lying on a feather bed at the time. Other members of the family re- 
ceived electric shocks but were uninjured. There was no cemetery there at 
this time, so Jehu Hodgson gave a tract of a little more than one and one- 



Early Settlement of Dragoon Creek. 9 

quarter acres for a public burying ground, and Mr. Probasco was the first 
person buried in this, the present Harveyville cemetery. 

Highwaymen and horse thieves were a form of annoyance that the early 
settlers had to contend with. In the spring of 1858 William Curtis, who 
lived near Wilmington, sent his two sons to Kansas City with an ox team to 
purchase supplies. On their return trip they were met at a lonely point on 
the trail by a highwayman, who robbed them of what money they had. 
William Madden, who was also on his way home from Kansas City, met the 
robber and talked with him. Madden had scarcely reached home when he 
learned of the robbery, so getting four young men to accompany him, they 
procured horses and set out after the highwayman, whom they found and 
brought back to Council City. He was given a trial by a vigilance committee: 
the money of which he had robbed the boys was taken away from him, and 
he was sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on the naked back; six members 
of the vigilance committee being selected to jointly perform the castigation. 
After the infliction of the penalty the culprit was given his supper, escorted 
out of town, and told never to come back. 

The summer of 1858 George Brain, who owned but one horse, lariated 
him one night near his cabin. The next morning the horse was gone. Brain 
procured the assistance of some neighbors, and by following the trail and 
inquiring they found the horse and thief at Lawrence, and both were brought 
back. It being late in the evening when they reached Mr. Brain's clain;, 
the thief was tied and put in the cabin. That night a masked committee 
called at the cabin, tied Mr. and Mrs. Brain, and took the horse thief away 
with them. As. reports differed about the disposition of the horse thief at 
the hands of the vigilance committee, I can give no further particulars.' 

There was no published time card for the first "railroad" through our 
settlement, and no regularity was observed in the running of the trains. 
The road was in operation during the years 1857, 1858 and 1859, and all cars 
ran at night. The stations were few and far apart, the one on Dragoon creek 
being in the loft of Henry Harvey's house. Enoch Piatt's house in Wabaun- 
see was the next station. This railroad was better known as the '"Under- 
ground Railroad," and runaway slaves were the only passengers carried. 

Not much wheat was sown during the early years in the territory, as the 
price of seed wheat was so high. There were heavy rains during the spring 
and summer, of 1859. Corn did well that year and grass made a vigorous 
growth. In the falls of 1858 and 1859 the grass was so high that as a guard 
against fire the settlers plowed and burned fire-breaks around their houses 
and fences. Even these precautions did not always save property, and prairie 
fires were very destructive. 

The first "stock" hogs in the settlement were purchased in Missouri. 
These hogs were not thoroughbreds, but were of a variety known as " Razor- 
backs," possibly so called on account of the extremely thin or flat frame of 
the breed. These hogs in their native state roamed the woods at will, and 
it was with difficulty that they could be kept within any inclosure. They 
ate large quantities of corn but could not be fattened. 

In the spring of 1859 three Indians were seen early one morning, by one 
of the settlers, taking Samuel Devaney's horse and pony along the Indian 

4. For an extended account of the above occurrence see "Early History of Wabaunsee County, 
Kansas," by Matt Thomson, 1901, p. 145. 



10 Kansas State Historical Society. 

trail that ran in a northwesterly direction across Samuel Armstrong's claim, 
The nearest neighbors were hastily notified, and Samuel Devaney, Samuel 
Wood, Samuel B. Harvey and Jeptha Beebe started in pursuit as soon as 
horses, arms, and ammunition could be procured. They trailed the Indians 
to a steep ravine on the east branch of Mill creek, not far from John Copp's 
claim. The Indians were armed with bows and arrows only. In the fight 
one of the Indians was so severely wounded that his companions mounted 
their ponies and fled, leaving him and the stolen property in the hands of the 
settlers. A member of the pursuing party went to the home of Mr. Copp 
and related to him the circumstances, whereupon he had the unfortunate 
Indian carried to his home, placed near a hay stack, and made as comfortable 
as possible. The men then returned home with the recovered property and 
told the neighbors what they had done. Later Mr. Copp, supposing that 
the wounded Indian was a member of the Pottawatomie tribe living on the 
reservation north of Mill creek, notified the tribe and they sent a squad to 
take him away. As soon as the Pottawatomies saw the wounded Indian 
they said he was a "Pawnee — our enemy," and they proceeded to scalp and 
torture him, finally killing him. When Mr. Copp learned what they had 
done he insisted that they bury him, which they reluctantly did. 

In 1859 many Indians passed through the settlement en route to their 
hunting grounds. Many of these bands camped near the settlement, and in 
evenings, in company with boy friends, I frequently visited their tepees. 
• Most of the settlers who came in 1859 left in 1860 on account of the drouth. 
Gilmer Young and William Blankenship, however, remained, and both later 
became Kansas soldiers. 

Early births in our settlement were Samuel M., son of Isaiah and Nancy 
J. Harris, born August 11, 1858; Frank L., son of .Jehu and Mary A. Hodgson; 
Mary E., daughter of Samuel and Dency E. Woods: Lincoln, son of Allen 
and Joanna Hodgson. 

Early marriages as I remember them were Edward B. Murrell and Mary 
J. Harris, married by Allen Hodgson, justice of the peace, January 26, 1860; 
Burgess Vanness and Eliza Spencer; Ephraim (?) Jellison and Eliza Bailey. 

After the rejection of the Lecompton constitution, as previously men- 
tioned, the legislature of 1859 provided for the framing of another constitu- 
tion and formation of a state government. All formalities having been gone 
through with, and elections held, the delegates met in constitutional con- 
vention at Wyandotte on July 5. On July 29 the constitution framed by 
them was signed, and on October 4, following, was submitted to the voters of 
the territory. It was adopted by a vote of 10,421 for the constitution, 5530 
votes against it, giving a majority for the constitution of 4891. 

The members of Congress from the southern states had been desirous of 
admitting Kansas as a slave state, and they were supported by President 
Buchanan, who in a message to Congress on February 2, 1858, said: " Kansas 
is therefore at this moment as much a slave state as Georgia or South Caro- 
lina."^ Thus it was not until after long debates that Kansas was finally 
admitted into the Union under the Wyandotte constitution, January 29, 
1861. 

There were no schoolhouses or church buildings in the Dragoon creek 
settlement until 1862, but the church missionary society occasionally sent 

5. Richardson's "Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897," vol. 5, p. 479. 



Early Settlement of Dragoon Creek. 11 

representatives there to preach. The appointments were four weeks or more 
apart, and the services were held in the homes of settlers. Sunday-schools 
were held when there was no preaching. In the fall and winter evenings 
weekly spelling schools, or "spellings bees," were held at different homes in 
the settlement. As the homes of the settlers were too far from each other 
for those attending spelling schools to walk, and the settlers had no buggies 
or automobiles, the principal mode of conveyance was the farm wagon drawn 
by a yoke of oxen. 

During the fall and winter of 1859 scarcely any rain or snow fell, and 
during the spring of 1860 barely enough fell to sprout and l)ring up the crops. 
No rain fell during the summer, but the hot winds blew and the grasshoppers 
came in swarms from the southwest and devoured what little vegetation 
there was. The settlers discovered that by cutting and drying their corn- 
stalks — no ears of corn had started — the grasshoppers would not trouble them. 
This sort of forage, when cured and stacked in the cribs, did not equal in 
bulk the amount of corn in the ear raised on the same land the previous year — 
1859. The drouth was so severe that the streams stopped running, and most 
of the pools in the creek beds went dry. The prairie grass was short and 
eaten close to the ground by the milk cows and young stock. An occasional 
shower fell in the vicinity of the Marias des Cygnes, twenty-five or thirty 
miles southeast from the settlement, but the country thereabouts was Sac 
and Fox Indian land, and no cattle could range there. However, neighbors 
having cattle united, and going there with scythes, cut and stacked hay. 
Later members from the different families took the stock over to winter in 
the timber where the hay had beeh stacked, and making a camp there re- 
mained through the winter to look after the stock. 

Money at this time was very scarce; but few of the settlers had any, and 
it was only the timely help of friends and the eastern public generally which 
served to tide us over this hard season. At Atchison the State Aid Society 
had headquarters, with Samuel C. Pomeroy as chairman. There was no 
railroad then, and Atchison was distant more than eighty miles from our 
settlement, but those owning oxen, even though their animals were poor in 
flesh, used them for hauling supplies. The principal bread in most of the 
families was made from corn meal, while dried buffalo meat constituted 
almost the sole source of the meat supply. 

About Christmas, 1860, a snow of more than two feet in depth fell, which 
did not melt until the early spring of 1861. That spring and summer suffi- 
cient rain fell to soak the ground, and good crops were raised. No wheat 
was sown that fall, however, as seed could not be procured. The prairie 
grass made a vigorous growth in 1861, and fire-breaks were again burned 
around cultivated tracts to save the hay, fences and other property from 
destruction through prairie fires. Notwithstanding these precautions much 
damage was done. While the crops of 1861 were good there was no cash 
market for any produce nearer than the Missouri river points, and corn 
hauled there by teams of two or more yoke of oxen, would only fetch fifteen 
cents per bushel. 

Miss Eliza Spencer taught a private school on Dragoon creek during the 
summer of 1861, holding sessions in a log cabin. Sometime later she married 
Burgess Vanness. 



12 Kmmaii State Historical Society. 

A few families were added to the settlement that year, among whom 
were John Garinger and family of fourteen persons, including his niece and 
nephew, Susan and William Andree. Dr. Calkins, who came from Illinois 
with Henry Easter's family in 1858, and brought his family of six persons 
in 1860. Paul Bryan, an unmarried man, came that year. 

Morris Walton came from Ohio in 1857 and located on the Wakarusa. 
In 1862 he bought Samuel B. Harvey's claim on Dragoon creek, and with 
his family of eight persons settled there. Robert J. Marrs and family of six 
persons came from Missouri in 1862. George Wood, a colored man, with 
family, came in 1862 or '63. 

As a result of the admission of Kansas as a free state and the election of 
Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, seven of the southern 
states seceded and organized an army in rebellion against the United States 
government. April 15, 1861, President Lincoln made the first call for soldiers 
to put down the rebellion, and for the war which followed Kansas furnished 
more troops according to her population than any other state in the Union. 
Dragoon creek settlement furnished a large proportion. All the able-bodied 
men were in the volunteer service, the militia against Price and his raiders, 
or in the Indian war. The following is a list of the soldiers from this settle- 
ment and the regiments in which they served: 

John Greelish, enlisted November 5, 1861, as first lieutenant. Company E, 
Eighth Kansas; he was promoted to captain the same day; resigned June 6, 
1864. Wounded in action at Chickamauga, Ga., September 19, 1863. 

Gilmer Young, enlisted in Company F, First Kansas infantry. May 25, 
1861, age 32 years. Killed in battle August 10, 1861, at Wilson Creek, Mo. 

Eli Walton, enlisted in First Kansas battery, July 24, 1861, age 21 years, 
mustered out September 7, 1864. 

Merrill E. Cowee, enlisted August 25, 1862, in Company I, Second Kansas 
cavalry. Mustered out June 22, 1865. 

Samuel B. Easter, enlisted June 19, 1862, in Company F, Second Kansas 
cavalry, age 18 years. Mustered out June 22, 1865. 

Gary Walton, enlisted July 12, 1862, in Company I, Second Kansas cav- 
alry, age 20 years. Mustered out June 22, 1865. 

Paul Bryan, enlisted September 5, 1861, in Company B, Seventh Kansas 
cavalry. Mustered out September 29, 1865. 

Henry C. Thomson, enlisted in Company I, Eleventh Kansas cavalry, 
August 20, 1862. Mustered out September 26, 1865. 

Ira Hodgson, enlisted in Company E, Eleventh Kansas cavalry, September 
5, 1862, age 16 years. Mustered out August 7, 1865. 

George Hodgson, enlisted in Company E, Eleventh Kansas cavalry, 
August 1, 1863, age 15 years. Died at Lawrence, Kan., May 26, 1864. 

Alonzo D. McCoy, enlisted August 28, 1862, in Company E, Eleventh 
Kansas cavalry, age 16 years. Died at Springfield, Mo., February 12, 1863. 

Jehu Hodgson, enlisted in Company C, Seventeenth Kansas infantry, 
July 16, 1864, age 34 years. Died November 3, 1864. 

Henry Harvey, jr., enlisted September 13, 1861, in Company E, Eighth 
Kansas infantry, age 20 years. Died at luka. Miss., August 30, 1862. 

William Blankenship, enlisted September 13, 1861, in Company E, Eighth 
Kansas infantry, age 23 years. Died at Chattanooga, Tenn.. November 28. 
1863. 



Early Settlement of Dragoon Creek. 13 

Lucius P. Calkins, enlisted September \S, 1861, in Company E, Eighth 
Kansas infantry, age 18 years. Killed in battle at Chickamauga, Ga.. Sep- 
tember 20, 1863. 

Daniel Spear, enlisted September 13, 1861, in Company E, Eighth Kansas 
infantry, age 31 years. Discharged for disability at Louisville, Ky., February 
28, 1863. 

Andrew W. Harris, enlisted April 22, 1862, in Company E, Eighth Kansas 
infantry, age-19 years. He left the regiment at Atlanta, Ga., April 21, 1865, 
and died of disease, caused by severe service, some three months later, July 
30, 1865. 

Haynie Thomson, enlisted October 23, 1861, in Company E, Eighth Kan- 
sas infantry, age 23 years. Died at Louisville, Ky., December 2, 1862. 

John W. Johnson, enlisted April 22, 1862, in Company E, Eighth Kansas 
infantry, age 18 years. Died at Jacinto, Miss., August 2, 1862. 

Stephen J. Spear, enlisted April 22, 1862, in Company E, Eighth Kansas 
infantry, age 27 years. Mustered out at Washington, D. C, April 22, 1865. 

Albert Harvey, jr., went to Ohio, and enlisted in Company L Twelfth 
Ohio infantry, June 25, 1861, age 19 years. Transferred to Company B, 
July, 1861; appointed sergeant from private, Jan. 1, 1864. Died at Fayette, 
W. Va., March 24, 1864. 

Aaron Garinger also enlisted in one of the Ohio regiments and was mus- 
tered out and returned to Kansas at the close of the war. 

Of the twenty-one soldiers mentioned, biit nine were over twenty-one 
years of age at the date of enlistment. 

Besides the soldiers in the volunteer service the following men were mem- 
bers of a militia company raised in the Dragoon creek settlement in October, 
1864, to help drive Price and his army from the eastern border of the state. 
They formed part of Company A, Santa Fe battalion, of which M. M. Mur- 
dock was colonel. Jehu Hodgson was captain of the company during October, 
1864, but was in the one-hundred-day service, consequently the command, 
October 8-28, fell to Levi Smith, first lieutenant. Robert J. Marrs was 
second lieutenant, Jesse E. Evans, fourth sergeant; other members of the 
company were J. Q. Cowee, Isaiah Harris, Allen Hodgson, Samuel C. Harvey, 
John Garinger, Joseph Johnson, Samuel Woods, George Wood and Eli Wal- 
ton. Walton had been mustered out after three years' service in the First 
Kansas battery, and reaching home the night before the militia company 
started east he volunteered to go with them. 

Two of the twelve men named above were detailed by Colonel Murdock 
to remain in the settlement and get wood and other supplies for the families 
of those going to the front. 

The Nineteenth Kansas cavalry, organized October 20, 1868, and mus- 
tered out April 18, 1869, also drew on Dragoon creek settlement, the follow- 
ing boys enlisting from there: Francis Marion Snyder, Albert A. Stubbs. 
and Thomas R. Johnson, all in Company M, Hurbert Calkins in Company I, 
Governor Samuel J. Crawford was colonel of the Nineteenth, resigning from 
office to take command. The regiment was called into service to protect 
settlers on the frontier, the western part of the state having been raided by 
hostile Indians, with much loss of life. 

For the Civil W^ar Dragoon settlement furnished twenty-one men; for 
militia service, Price's raid, twelve men; for Indian service, four men, making 



14 Kansas State Historical Society. 

a total of thirty-seven men in military service, 1861- '69. Of these, fourteen 
were under twenty-one years of age. The entire population of the settlement 
was not over ninety-three people, and of the male portion two were invalids. 

Of Company E, Eighth Kansas infantry, about one-half were recruited 
from the vicinity of Dragoon creek, Elm creek and Wilmington. Of this num- 
ber but eleven are known to be alive to-day [May 27, 1914]. The total en- 
rollment of Company E, from September 13, 1861, to November, 1865, was 
one hundred. 

John A. Martin was lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth regiment when it 
was organized, August, 1861, but was placed in command by Colonel Wessels 
when on February 7, 1862, that officer was ordered to rejoin his own regiment, 
the Sixth U. S. infantry. The latter part of the month, February 28, an order 
was issued reorganizing a number of Kansas regiments, and under its terms 
the Eighth was consolidated with a battalion raised in New Mexico, and 
Colonel Robert H. Graham was assigned to the command. Late in May the 
regiment was ordered to Corinth, Miss. It rendezvoused at Fort Leaven- 
worth, and on May 28, 1862, embarked on the steamer Emma, starting down 
the Missouri the next morning. Colonel Graham was taken sick at St. Louis 
and left the regiment at that place, turning over the command to Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Martin, who, on November 1, 1862, received his commis- 
sion as colonel of the regiment. Colonel Graham having died. 

The following extracts have been taken from the report of the adjutant 
general of Kansas.'"' The largest aggregate strength of the Eighth Kansas 
regiment was in March, 1862, when eight hundred and seventy-seven men 
were on the rolls, and six hundred and fifty-six were present for duty. The 
regiment carried three flags, the first until it went on veteran furlough early 
in 1864. Under that flag it marched three thousand six hundred and 
eighty-one miles; lost forty-seven men killed in battle, two hundred and 
eleven wounded and twenty missing. Under the second flag, carried until 
after the battle of Nashville, Tenn., it marched two thousand six hundred 
and sixty miles and lost in battle eighteen killed and sixty-one wounded. 
Under its third flag it traveled four thousand four hundred and nine miles, 
making a total of ten thousand seven hundred and fifty miles traveled by the 
regiment during its term of service. There were in the Eighth, from the 
organization to final muster out, one thousand and eighty-one officers and 
men. The greatest loss in one battle was at Chickamauga, Ga., September 
19 and 20, 1863; there were present for duty on September 19 four hun- 
dred and six men; of that number two hundred and forty-three were 
killed or wounded. 

In the battle of Chickamauga Company E furnished the following list of 
casualties; killed — Richard M. Kendall, Lucius P. Calkins, John H. Dun- 
mire, John Salior, William L. Wendell, Woodward Hindman, Thomas Stamp, 
David Hardin and Frainy Blaise; total, nine; wounded — Captain John 
Greelish, William Richardson, William Blankenship, Theodore Ingersoll, 
Zephaniah Johnson, Amos Reese, Melvin G. Bush, James Stewart, Ferdinand 
J. Wendell, Hector Spurgeon, James Nichols and Richard Russell; total, 
twelve. At bugle call on the morning of September 19, 1863, the first of the 
two days' battle at Chickamauga, there were not over forty members of Com- 
pany E present for duty. Two of the company were in the band, one in the 

6. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, ]8fil-186.5, vol. 2, p. 159 et seq. 
Two paginations in vol. 2.| 



Early Settlemeiit of Dragoon Creek. 15 

quartermaster's department, and three in the pioneer corps. In that battle 
the company lost a total of twenty killed and wounded out of the forty pres- 
ent for duty. 

The Eighth regiment participated in fifteen battles and eighteen skir- 
mishes. The aggregate loss in battle, killed and wounded, was three hundred 
and thirty-seven officers and men, and one officer and twenty men missing — 
a total loss of three hundred and fifty-eight men. 

The settlers along Dragoon creek received their mail at the post office of 
Wilmington until the fall of 1869, when a new mail route was established 
from Burlingame, running up Dragoon creek, to Alma, the county seat of 
Wabaunsee county, a distance of about thirty-eight miles. A post office was 
located on the northeast quarter of section 28, township 14 south, range 13 
east. The Post-office Department at Washington, D. C, requested the set- 
tlers to designate a name for the post office and nominate a postmanter. At 
a called ?neeting of the settlers the name New Lexington was selected for 
the post office and John Shaw named for postmaster as he was then living 
on the quarter section designated as the site for the post office. The nomi- 
nations were sent to the Post-office Department for approval, and .John 
Shaw was commissioned postmaster, but a new name was requested for the 
post office. The reason the name New Lexington was selected was that 
John McCoy had settled on the quarter section now designated for the post 
office in the spring of 1857, and as he had previously preempted a hundred- 
and-sixty-acre tract of land he was debarred from preempting a second tract 
as a farm. One of the provisions of the preemption act was that a company 
of five or more persons could preempt two quarter sections, or three hundred 
and twenty acres of land, for a town site. Mr. McCoy had therefore organ- 
ized a town company and selected the northeast quarter of section 28 and 
the southeast quarter of section 21, preempting it in behalf of the town 
company and naming it New Lexington. He had the town site surveyed 
and platted, but no improvements were ever made and no lots were ever sold. 
The site was never put to any use other than for farm purposes. It was a 
town site only in name, and in 1871 the streets and alleys were vacated by 
an act of the legislature.' 

After the Post-office Department rejected the name of New Lexington 
for the post office, a public meeting of the settlers was again called to meet at 
the schoolhouse for the purpose of selecting a new name. At this meeting 
Isaiah Harris proposed the name of Harveyville, in honor of Henry Harvey 
and his sons, George M. and Samuel B., who were the first settlers. This 
motion voiced the sentiments of those present and was unanimously adopted, 
and the name Harveyville was forwarded to the Post-office Department and 
accepted as the name of the post office. In the spring of 1870 John Shaw- 
resigned as postmaster, whereupon the post office was moved about a mile 
west to Caleb J. Harvey's home, and he was commissioned postmaster. He 
held the office until 1880, when a railroad from Burlingame to Manhattan, 
running through the Harveyville settlement, was built. As the railroad 
crossed the farm of the Walton brothers, they laid out a town, and the rail- 
road company built a depot there. Caleb J. Harvey having resigned as 
postmaster, the post office was moved to the new town site, and Alpheus 

7. New Lexington was partly vacated by act of legislature approved March 3, 1871. — See 
Session Laws 1871, p. 341. And finally vacated by act approved March 8, 1905. — See Session 
Laws 1905, p. 880. 



16 Kansas State Historical Society. 

Glasscock appointed postmaster. He served until his death in 1881, when 
Alonzo Walton was commissioned. 

On the mail route first established between Burlingame and Alma the 
mail was carried horseback. J. H. Stubbs had the contract, and during the 
period between November, 1870, and July, 1871, Stephen J. Spear carried the 
mail, making weekly round trips between the two towns. On July 1, 1871, 
Volney Love received the contract, and a two-horse team was found neces- 
sary to handle the increasing mail and to accommodate passenger traffic. 
Love secured permission to reverse the route, making it from Alma to Bur- 
lingame, leaving Alma on Fridays and returning from Burlingame on Sat- 
urdays. This weekly service continued until August, 1880, when, the Man- 
hattan, Alma & Burlingame railroad being built, a daily service was estab-. 
lished. Mr. Love also had the contract for carrying the mail from Alma to 
Council Grove, and in 1873 Mr. Spear carried over this route. 

In August, 1868, George Wood and family were living in a log cabin on 
James L. Thomson's farm, section 24, towhship 14, range 12. Wood was a 
colored man and was working at Burlingame, some thirteen miles from his 
home. He used a pony to ride back and forth, usually going to Burlingame 
Monday morning and returning home Saturday night. 

Late one Saturday afternoon, August 15, several men, driving wagons, 
arrived in the neighborhood, claiming to be Kentuckians in search of gov- 
ernment land. Deciding to go into camp, they placed one of their wagons 
almost directly in front of the slip bars to the Thomson pasture used by 
Wood, and tied the horses to the wagon. About 11 o'clock that night Wood 
returned from Burlingame, rode up to the entrance of the pasture, let down 
the bars, and while leading his pony inside was fired on by the men under 
the wagon. As soon as they saw him fall, they notified Mr. Thomson that 
they had wounded a colored man. Wood was immediately taken to his 
home and family, where he died the next afternoon. William Harvey and 
the writer were with him at the time of his death. Before he died he told 
how he was shot, stating that the men under the wagon never spoke to him — 
but shot him without warning. Two of the men were arrested on a charge 
of murder, their preliminary trial being held before James M. Johnson, 
justice of the peace, Morris Walton being prosecuting witness. County at- 
torney Whittemore conducted the prosecution, while James M. Rodgers was 
attorney for the defendants. At the trial the defendants claimed that they 
believed the man was trying to steal their horses. They were held under a 
three thousand dollar bond for their appearance at the next term of district 
court to face a charge of murder. Being unable to furnish bond they were 
taken to Topeka and placed in the Shawnee county jail. Some time later 
they were released on a writ of habeas corpus and left the state. 

By an act of the legislature of 1855 the boundaries of Richardson county^ 
were established. In 1859 the legislature changed the name to Wabaunsee, 
and under the provisions of the same act the first county officers were elected. 
The superintendent of public instruction organized and established the 
boundaries and numbered the school districts, the Dragoon creek district 
being numbered twelve. In 1862 the newly elected district officers procured 
a site for a schoolhouse on the south side of the northeast quarter of section 

8. Richardson county was named for William P. Richardson, a native of Kentucky, and a 
-senator from the Eighth council district in the territorial legislituies of 1855 and 1857. See also 
Kansas State Historical Collections, vol. 8, p. 451. 



Early Settlement of Druijoon Creek. 17 

28, and Joseph Johnson built the first school building, which was of frame. 
Miss Susan Andree was the first teacher after the district was organized, 
and Mrs. E. C. D. Cowee was also one of the early teachers in the district. 

In 1877 a two-acre tract on the southwest corner of the northwest quarter 
of section 27 was purchased of Samuel Woods, and a stone school liuilding 
eighteen by thirty-two feet in size was built. 

The first school building was used on Sundays for Sunday-school and 
preaching. In February, 1878, the Friends bought the old schoolhouse 
in district number 12, and moved it to the northwest quarter of section 21, 
using it as a meetinghouse until they erected a new building about the year 
1881. 

In 1891 a site was bought in the Garinger addition to Harveyville, by 
the members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a church building 
erected thereon. Rev. J. H. Zabriska preached in this locality from March, 
1888, to March, 1893, and besides had the distinction of being one of the 
carpenters employed in the construction of the new church building. 

Among the families coming into the Dragoon creek settlement after the 
spring of 1865 may be mentioned Jeremiah Fields and wife Betsey, with 
their two married sons and son-in-law: Joseph Fields and family of six 
persons; John L. Fields and family of five persons; James M. Johnson and 
family of four persons; they all came from Ohio in September, 1865. 

Caleb J. Harvey, formerly of Ohio, but later a teacher at the Quaker 
Shawnee Indian mission, came in December, 1865. 

Squire Cantrill, unmarried, came from Ohio in 1867; he later married a 
Miss Burroughs. Upon her death he married her sister. 

John B. Carter and family of three sons and two daughters came from 
Ohio in the fall of 1867. 

Enoch Carter, two sons and one daughter came from Ohio in 1868. 

John Shaw and family; Seth C. Foster and family; George Horton and 
wife; Asa Gookins and William Horton, unmarried men, all came from 
Indiana in 1868. 

Ephraim Elliott and family, Reuben Elliott and family, and Eli True- 
blood and family, all came from Indiana in 1869. 

Albert Lewis and family came from Ohio in 1869. 

John Smale and family, and Andrew Pringle and family, came from 
Canada in 1868 or 1869. 

John N. Barlow, wife and one son came from Ohio in February, 1869. 
Some marriages during this period were: Henry Thompson and Emlen 
Harris, married in June, 1866; Dill Avery and Susan M. Harris, married 
December 25, 1866; Joseph Johnson and Margaret Deering, married in 
1867; Eli Walton and Caroline Suiter, married in February, 1869; William 
Shaw and Mary Carter, married in 1869; William Carter and Margaret 
Shaw, married in 1869; David Carter and Margaret Harris, married in 
March, 1870; Marion Meredith and Susan Carter, married in 1870; Samuel 
B. Easter and Huldah McCormick, married in October, 1871; John Crumb 
and Emeline Woods, married in 1871. 

In 1860 Jehu Hodgson and wife had a tract of land surveyed and platted 
for cemetery purposes, James B. Ingersoll and assistants doing the work. 
This tract as finally platted consisted of eighty burial lots, each twelve by 
forty feet in size, ample for eight graves. The tract was deeded in trust 
to the County Commissioners of Wabaunsee County, and their successors 



18 Kayisas State Historical Society. 

in office, for a free cemetery. Eight conditions were named; the first pro- 
vided that the cemetery should be under the care of a superintendent who 
might be appointed by the county commissioners, or by f iends of the 
deceased. 

A record of burials was kept by Jehu Hodgson previous to the time he 
entered the army, in .June ,1864. October 30, 1864, Mrs. Hodgson began keep- 
ing the record, but continued it only a short time, as she moved to Americus, 
Lyon county, the next spring. No record of burials was kept from that time 
until 1866, when a returned soldier — Stephen J. Spear — procured the orig- 
inal list from Mrs. Hodgson, had it copied into a record book, and from 
that time kept an accurate list of interments until his successor was ap- 
pointed in 1873. 

In 1867 a movement was started for the improvement of the cemetery. 
A petition asking for subscriptions to place a substantial board fence around 
the cemetery was circulated, and the necessary means were procured. J. Q. 
and M. E. Cowee, who owned a small sawmill in the timber, sawed the 
lumber needed for this purpose at a price fifty cents a hundred less than 
their regular price for such work. This material was furnished by the spring 
of 1868 and the fence was immediately built. 

In the spring of 1876 stone corners for the four corners of each of the 
eighty lots were quarried, hauled and set in place of the wooden corners 
originally used. The northwest corner stones were then numbered from 
one to eighty for permanent identification. A new fence was built at this 
time. 

It became evident as the years passed by that a larger cemetery was 
needed, and between 1888 and 1891 a corporation was organized and char- 
tered under the laws of the state. A board of trustees was elected, and they 
purchased a tract of land from F. L. Hodgson adjoining the original ceme- 
tery on the south and east. This new cemetery was surveyed into lots, 
driveways and alleys, and the whole tract inclosed with a woven-wire fence 
strung on hedge posts. In the summer of 1892 F. L. Hodgson was appointed 
superintendent of the original cemetery and superintendent by proxy by the 
trustees of the new cemetery. No salary attaches to the position, still the 
place is nicely cared for. A fund was donated for the future improvement 
of the cemetery, and C. L. Davis was chosen treasurer. 

Following are the names of some of those buried in this cemetery: Wm. 
Probasco, killed by lightning, July 25, 1858. Sarah Kester, wife of John 
Kester, died October 26, 1858. Lois T. Spear, wife of Nathaniel S. Spear, 
died November 15, 1858, aged 58 years, 1 month, and 4 days. Anna Harvey, 
wife of Henry Harvey, sr., died July 8, 1858. Elizabeth Easter, daughter 
of Henry Easter, died September 8, 1860. Hannah McCoy, wife of John 
McCoy, died April 9, 1862. George Brain, died August 5, 1863. Jehu 
Hodgson, died October 30, 1864, aged about 36 years. Andrew W. Harris, 
died July 30, 1865, aged 23 years. Andrew Johnson, died May 7, 1867, 
aged about 70 years. Merrill E. Cowee, died March 21, 1872. Pluma C. 
Woods, died February 25, 1873, aged 18 years. John Kester, died August 
5, 1872. Morris Walton, died September 27, 1872, aged about 58 years. 
Cyrus P. Easter, died August 17, 1874, aged 21 years. Elva Walton, wife 
of A. C. Walton, died November 21, 1878. Riley R. Woods, died June 8, 
1886, aged about 35 years. Charlotte Johnson, widow of Andrew John- 
son, died March 6, 1887, aged about 81 years. Joanna Hodgson, wife of 



Early Settlement of Dragoon Creek. 19 

Allen Hodgson, died February 12, 1888. John Garinger, died February 16, 
1888. Isaiah Harris, died September 25, 1890, aged 71 years. James E. 
Johnson, died December 31, 1890, aged 82 years. Abigail Walton, died 
January 22, 1892, aged about 77 years. Dency R. Woods, died February 1, 
1893, aged about 68 years. Samuel Woods, died October 10, 1893, aged 70 
years. Allen Hodgson, died July 26, 1894. Henry Easter, died January 11, 
1896. Charlotte Garinger, died March 11, 1899. David Carter, died Novem- 
ber 27, 1899. Sarah Easter, died August 23, 1904. Caroline Walton, died 
May 8, 1905, Joseph Fields, died February 19, 1907. William Carter, 
died February 25, 1908. Emeline Barlow, died August 15, 1908, aged 68 
years. Eli Trueblood, died January 3, 1909. Samuel B. Easter, died October 
31, 1910, aged 66 years. John N. Barlow, died November 10, 1912, aged 
72 years. 

With the burial of John N. Barlow there were just 400 interments in the 
Harveyville cemetery. Some of the early settlers have moved away, and it 
has not been possible to secure data regarding all of them. 

Henry Harvey, sr., went to Ohio in 1860, and died there between 1862 
and 1865. 

John McCoy went to Leavenworth and died there. 

George M. Harvey and family and Samuel B. Harvey, in 1867, went to 
a farm on the Cottonwood river, about three miles southwest of Emporia. 
George Harvey died there in the fall of 1869, and his widow, Abigail Harvey, 
died a few years later. 

Nathaniel S. Spear moved to Burlington, Coffey county, Kansas, and 
died there March 22, 1876. 

James L. Thomson died in the sparing of 1882, and is buried on his farm in 
a family burial lot. 

Samuel B. Harvey died at Emporia March 13, 1904. 

Edward B. Murrell and family moved to Neodesha, Kan., where he 
died in September, 1905. 

Of the sixty-three persons living in the vicinity of the Dragoon creek or 
Harvey settlement prior to September 21, 1857, there were living in May, 
1914, the following: Mrs. Isaiah Harris, Harveyville; Joseph Johnson, 
on a farm near his original preemption, Harveyville; Mrs. Mary A. [Hodg- 
son] Thomas, Emporia; Mr. and Mrs. J. Q. Cowee, on the farm they pre- 
empted; Emma [Brain] Chase, El Dorado; Samuel C. Harvey, Emporia, 
grandson of Henry Harvey; Mrs. Mary J. [Harris] Murrell, Neodesha; 
Mrs. Martha N. [Harris] Glasscock, San Bernardino, Calif.; Mrs. Margaret 
A. [Harris] Carter, Harveyville; James Harris, Topeka, sons and daughters 
of Isaiah Harris; Mrs. Mary E. [Hodgson] Perkins, Topeka, and Ira Hodg- 
son, Doxey, Okla., daughter and son of Allen Hodgson; John and Charles 
Hodgson, Plaza, Wash., sons of .lehu Hodgson; Matt Thomson, Henderson, 
Ark., son of James L. Thomson; Mrs. Emeline [Woods] Crumb, near Harvey- 
ville, and Geo. A. Woods in California, daughter and son of Samuel Woods. 
Stephen J. Spear, Topeka, Kan. 



This sketch has only attempted to chronicle events to about the year 1869, 
and with a few exceptions, brief personal mention of a few of the earlier 
settlers, leaves off with that date. Within the compass of one article it was 
neither practicable nor possible to record many interesting items — historical 
and personal — which could have been written. 



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